Across the country, on secular campuses as varied as Colgate University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, chaplains, professors and administrators say students are drawn to religion and spirituality with more fervor than at any time they can remember.

More students are enrolling in religion courses, even majoring in religion; more are living in dormitories or houses where matters of faith and spirituality are a part of daily conversation; and discussion groups are being created for students to grapple with questions like what happens after death, dozens of university officials said in interviews.

A survey on the spiritual lives of college students, the first of its kind, showed in 2004 that more than two-thirds of 112,000 freshmen surveyed said they prayed, and that almost 80 percent believed in God. Nearly half of the freshmen said they were seeking opportunities to grow spiritually, according to the survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

I think the NYT is using the term “religion” to signify questions of deeper being. I hope this interest is not actually in religious institutions, old theological systems or simplistic hero myths. It would be a shame to revert to pre-modern religion and not take another step forward beyond secularism instead.

The vogue term that I’ve heard all around is spirituality. It’s hip to be spiritual these days, and many of the next generations are seemingly much less interested in institutions, be they religious or corporate.